BBC wins top environmental award

The BBC yesterday walked away with the prestigious David Bellamy Eco Prize, silencing critics of its so-called "numbing-down" approach to television programmes.

Loveable bearded eccentric David Bellamy himself presented the prize to Auntie for its corporation-wide policy of continuously recycling its own products.

Despite struggling to pronounce the BBC's name, Mr Bellamy was particularly effusive of the BBC Choice channel. He told the packed recording studio: "When faced with a poorly-performing channel, many companies would have simply brought out a new one. The BBC, however, had the foresight to revamp and repackage the channel as BBC Three — a vast saving in materials and excellent for the environment."

Mr Bellamy also held up the reliance on proven favourites including sitcoms Fawlty Towers, The Good Life and Only Fools and Horses as evidence that original and innovative programme makers were still alive and kicking outside the commissioning editors' offices.

"These shows have now been broadcast so many times that they have entered the tribal memory of the British population and can be recited in their entirety by new-born infants," Mr Bellamy proudly announced. "By sticking doggedly with this handful of classic shows, the BBC has prevented over two dozen-rain forests from being destroyed to make new sets. That in itself is a great achievement."

But the BBC's environmental stance goes far beyond recycling old shows — it has also started an "ideas pooling" scheme to cut down on wasted resources. One example of reusing a single idea for several shows comes with Bargain Hunt and Flog it. While viewers were left none the wiser, one show films people selling items at auction, whereas the other films people selling things at auction.

Home improvement shows still lead the programming world however, with Home Front, Changing Rooms, DIY SOS, House Invaders, Big Strong Boys and Trading Up all entirely different but in green terms separated only by the amount of useful compost each could produce.

Accepting the award on behalf of the corporation, an emotional Greg Dick praised the efforts of his production team and pledged to continue with his green crusade.

You can see the full awards show on BBC1 this Tuesday, repeated on Thursday on BBC Two and every six hours thereafter on BBC Three until someone from the Fast Show can be bothered to turn a 30-second comedy character into an eight-show series.